Ryan Riegg

Ryan Riegg is a senior transactional and strategic legal advisor with deep experience supporting technology-driven companies, investment platforms, and global businesses at moments of scale, transformation, and regulatory complexity. His practice spans complex commercial transactions, corporate governance, M&A, data privacy and AI governance, and cross-border operations across the U.S., EMEA, and emerging markets.

Ryan’s legal career began unconventionally in 2003, when he founded and operated a startup in a refugee camp focused on job creation and cross-border trade—successfully reversing a longstanding U.S. Customs precedent in the process. Subsequently, he ran the business for several years, handling all legal, regulatory, and commercial matters, before attending UCLA School of Law, where he earned his J.D.

Following law school, Ryan advised IP-driven businesses before relocating to the Middle East to practice with a pan-MENA law firm that was later acquired by Eversheds. There, he became a go-to advisor on technology, data, and cross-border corporate matters, working extensively across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on fund formation, M&A, privacy, digital platforms, and complex commercial arrangements.

Ryan later moved in-house to serve as senior legal counsel for a global investment group, overseeing legal strategy for the firm and its international portfolio companies. His work focused on venture and growth investments, U.S.–EMEA transactions, governance, and regulatory risk management for technology-enabled businesses. He subsequently joined a digital entertainment and technology company during a period of rapid international expansion, advising on licensing, partnerships, platform growth, privacy (including GDPR and COPPA), IP strategy, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

In addition to his transactional practice, Ryan has advised social-impact ventures, technology founders, and mission-driven organizations operating in fragile and conflict-affected environments, including work in the Balkans following the European refugee crisis.

Ryan is also an experienced educator with a strong dedication to both law and innovation. He's an Innovation Fellow at Columbia Business School, and has taught international business and law at leading institutions, including Hult International Business School, and has published widely on technology, AI, data privacy, geopolitics, and regulation in outlets such as The Hill, Newsweek, VICE, Vox, Texas Lawbook, and leading academic journals at UCLA Law, Cornell Law, and U. Denver (Sturm). He has moderated and participated in high-level panels with senior privacy and technology leaders from major multinational companies, and assisted hundreds of startups during his career..

Ryan regularly works with companies and investors as a fractional general counsel, senior commercial counsel, or special projects advisor—particularly where legal judgment, speed, and business fluency are equally critical. He is admitted to practice law in California, Texas, and Colorado.